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REPORT ON THE CULTIVATION OF CHINCHGNA IN BENGAL. 157
The scrub, and even vouns^ trees as tliick as a man's bodv. fall
rapidly before the knives of these clearers. Where patches of virgin
forest are met with the axe must be used ; but here every tree is not
felled, as the smaller ones, being notched near the ground, are borne
down by the fall of the full-gro^ni trees. In preparing ground for
Chiucliona planting at Daijeeling, the practice has always been to clear
the land entii'ely of all vegetation,—not a tree of even the smallest size
ever being spared. In these hills, forest should not be felled before
the middle or the end of November ; if the land is cleared earlier, the
grasses and underwood spring up among tlie branches of the fallen
trees, and thus their burning is prevented. Felling may be continued
until the middle of Marcli. After two or three months' exposure to
the bright sunshine and dry air of the cold season, the felled trees are
in a fit state to burn. By the end of !March, therefore, fires may be lit
in the afternoon, when the sun has thoroughly dried up the heavy
dew, at the bottom of the slope covered with felled and dry jungle.
The fire rapidly consumes the whole of the bnishwood and the branches
of the trees, leaving only the large branches and trunks to smoulder
for weeks.
Wherever virgin forest or bamboo jungle has existed it has been
necessary, after burning the lighter vegetation, to cut up the trunks of
the trees and the bamboos into short pieces, and either to pile them
into heaps for burning, or to roll them into the steep ravines which
are too stony for planting Chinchonas. The land thus cleared by fire is
ready for laying out the ground for planting, and for marking out the
bridle paths required to give easy access to cill parts of it. These
paths are made about four or five feet wide, and are connected with the
principal roads of the plantation. The sites for the plants are fixed
by means of a cord about 100 feet in length, on which marks are tied
at inteiTals of six feet for C. suecinibra, and at shorter distance for
C. officinalis. This marked cord is stretched along the ground, and at
each mark on it a stick, about two feet and a half in length, is thrust
into the grou'.id, thus indicating the place where a Chinchona is .to be
planted. In order to secure uniformity in the plantation, each line is
continued to the full extent of the ground to be planted before another
line is commenced : the lines in properly laid-out plantations will thus
be parallel.
In the plantations of C. succirvhra the Hues are fixed at six feet